The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-10-06

cry OF uiStTeSS, OF an eCIlO Oh agony. AT
that one groan the Prince rose from all
The blissful circumjacence, and started
for the outer gate, and descended into
the night of this world Out of what a
bright harbor into what rough sea!
t'Stay with us, cried angel after angel,
and potentate after potentate. 'No,"
said the Prince; Il cannot stay; must
be off for that wreck of world. must
stop that groan. I must hush that dis
tress. I must fathom that way. must
redeem those nations. Farewell, thrones
and temples, companions cherubic, SER
aphic, archangelic. Excuse this absence,
for l will come back again, carrying on
my shoulder a ransomed world. Till
this is done l choose earthly scoff to
heavenly acclamation, and cattle pen TO
kings palace, frigid zone of earth to
atmosphere of celestial radiance. have
no time to lose, for hark ye to the groan
that grows mightier while l wait. Fare
well! farewellp'
''Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for
your sakes he became poor
Was there ever a contrast so Overpower-
ing as that between the MONDAY of Christ's
celestial departure and the midnight of
his earthly arrival? Sure enough, the
angels were out that night in the sky, and
especial meteor acted as escort, but all
that was from other worlds, and not
from this world. The earth made no
demonstration of welcome. If one of
the great princes of this world steps out
at a depot cheers resound, and the bands
,NIa Ia TQ11f tho
arrival of this missionary Prince of the
skies not torch flared, not trumpet
blew, not a plume fluttered. All the
music and pomp were overhead. Our
world opened for him nothing better
than barn door. The rajah of Cash
mere sent to Victoria bedstead of carved
gold and canopy that cost seven hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, but the world
had for the Prince of heaven and earth
only litter of straw. The crown Jewels
in the Tower of London amount to fifteen
million dollars. but this member of eter-
nal royalty had nowhere to lay his head.
To know how poor he was, ask the
camel drivers, ask the shepherds, ask
Mary, ask the three wise men of the
East who afterward came there, young
old Melchior. To know how poor he
was examine all the records of real es-
tate in all that Oriental country, and see
what vineyard, or what house, or what
field he owned. Not one. Of what
mortgage was he the mortgage? Of
what tenement was he the landlord? Of
what lease was he the lessee? Who ever
paid him rent? Not owning the boat on
which he sailed, or the beast on which
he rode, or the pillow on which he
slept. He had so little estate that in Or
der to pay his tax he had to perform
miracle, putting the amount of the as
sessment in fish's mouth and having it
hauled ashore. And after his death the
world rushed in to take an inventory of
of his goods, and the entire aggregate
was the garments he had worn, sleeping
in them by night and travelling in them
by day, bearing on them the dust of the
highway and the saturation of the sea.
Paul in my text did not go far from hit
ting the mark, did he, when he said of
the missionary Prince: ''For your sakes
he became poor ?''
The world could have treated him bet
ter if it had chosen. 1t had all the means
for making his earthly condition COM
Portable. Only few years before, when
Pompey, the general, arrived at Brindisi
he was greeted with arches and a costly
column, which celebrated the 12,000,000
people whom he had killed or conquered,
and he was allowed to wear his triumphal
robe in the senate. The world had ap-
plause for imperial butchers, but buffet
ing for the Prince of Peace. Plenty of
golden chalices for the favored to drink
out of, but our Prince must put his lips
to the bucket Of the well by the roadside
after he had begged for a drink. Poor?
Born in another mans barn and eating
at another mans table, and cruising the
lake in another mans fishing smack, and
buried IN another mans mausoleum.
Four inspired writer's wrote of his biog-
raphy, and innumeyable lives of Christ
have been published, but he composed his
autobiography in a most compressed way.
He said: Il have trodden the wine press
alone" Poor in the estimation of nearly
all the prosperous classes. They called
him Sabbath breaker wine bibber, traitor,
blasphemer and ransacked the dictionary
of oppro5rium from lid to lid to express
their detestation. l can think now of
only two well to do men who espoused
his cause-Nicodemus and Joseph of Ari-
mathea. His friends for the most part
were people who in that climate where
ophthalmy or inflammation of the eye
ball sweeps ever and anon as a scourge
had become blind; sick people who were
anxious to get well, and troubled people
in whose family there was some one dead
or dying If he had purse at all it was
empty, or we would have heard what
mortem. Poor? The pigeon in the dove
cote. the rabbit in its burrow, the silk
worm in its cocoon, the bee in its hive is
better provided for, better off, better
sheltered Aye, the brute creation has a
home on earth, which Christ has not,
If on windy days the raven
Gambol like dancing skiff,
Not the less he loves his haven
On the bosom of the cliff.
If almost with eagle pinion
Der the Alps the chamois roam,
Yet he has some small dominion
| Which no doubt he calls his home.
| But the Crown Prince of all heavenly
! dominion has less than the raven, less
| tran the chamois, for he was homeless
! Ave, in the history of the universe there
| is no other instance of such coming down
| Who can count the miles from the top oi
the throne to the bottom of the cross
Cleopatra, giving banquet to Antony
took pearl worth hundred thousand
| dollars and dissolved it in vinegar anC
| swallowed it. But when our Prince, ac
| cording to the evangelist, in his las
hours took the vinegar, in it had beer
dissolved all the pearls of his heavenly
royalty Down until there was no othe
depth for him to touch, troubled unit
there was no other harassment to suffer
Door until there was no other pauperisn
to torture. Billions of dollars spent il
wars to destroy men, who will furnisl
the statistics of the value of that preciou
| blood that was shed to save us? "4
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
that, though he was rich, yet for you
sai,es he became poor.